When these types of coatings are laid, it is necessary on a regular basis to cut the individual coating elements of the coating to size. Cutting the coating elements of these types of coatings places high requirements on apparatuses which are used for cutting the coatings to size. The material of these types of floor coatings should be as resistant as possible, i.e., firm and tough. At the same time, clean cuts are supposed to be made as much as possible in order to obtain a flooring surface that is as closed as possible when the properly cut pieces are abutted. In doing so, these types of apparatuses should be useable on-site when the flooring is being laid, which means that there are limitations related to the size and weight of these types of apparatuses.
An apparatus of the type under discussion is disclosed in EP 2 298 513 A1. The apparatus has a base, which provides a supporting surface for supporting the coating or coating element to be cut. A blade is provided to cut the coating or the coating element, which can be moved by suitable guide means with the cutting edge thereof towards the base. The guide means are arranged on both sides of the blade in a vertical plane with the cutting edge. The guide means are connected to the base via brackets. An actuating device is provided in order to be able to apply the forces to the blade that are required for cutting the coating or coating element. The actuating device has a lever in order to be able to exert sufficiently high forces via the blade on the coating or the coating element. The brackets are thereby used as abutments in order to absorb the reaction forces, which result from the forces exerted on the blade from the lever mechanism for cutting the coating.
The disadvantage of an apparatus of the described design is that, because of the brackets or guide means arranged on both sides of the cutting edge, the dimensions of the coating that can be accommodated in such an apparatus for cutting are limited. In particular, this means that coating sections or elements cannot be cut with such an apparatus along edges that exceed a certain length. In order to make cutting on-site possible with such an apparatus, the coating must already be present in sections or coating elements, whose edge lengths do not exceed a length predetermined by the apparatus. Rectangular coating sections that have different edge lengths can normally only be cut along their shorter edges.